Apparatus for the dye or like treatment of textile fibres



2 6 Q 2 m G k 7 W M :Y. I E 0 m m 1 .u. O.||,O |ll| 8 0 W A I o 0 a L d I 0 V/ \\\\\\\\\\\M Dec. 24, 1963 L. DRAGO APPARATUS FOR THEDYE OR LIKE TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Filed July l2, 1962 United States Patent 3,115,025 APPARATUS FUR THE DYE OR LIKE TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES Leo Drago, Schio, Italy, assign'or to llma-lndustria Lzg orazioni Metalli Antiacidi S.p.A., Schio, Italy, a m

Filed July 12, 1962, Ser. No. 209,458 Claims priority, application Italy July 13, 1961 2 Claims. (Cl. 68198) The invention relates to apparatus for the dye or like treatment of textile fibres and particularly to a device for automatically locking and loosening the locking of a pressure cap, designed to apply a suitable pressure to the textile material mounted on a bobbin carrier, housed in an autoclave or similar apparatus in which a treatment bath is used, said material being in the form of bobbins, or conical or cylindrical cheeses, and consisting of tops, carded slivers, yarns or the like.

Said device enables a perfect and uniform penetration to be obtained of the bath fluid into the material to be treated, by causing the pressure cap to lower automatically when the set of bobbins or cheeses mounted on a bobbin carrier becomes flabby as a result of the treatment which is carried out in the apparatus, and to lock said cap automatically in the required position.

In the known apparatus employed for carrying out dye or bleaching treatment or other similar treatment, which requires the use of particular baths, of textile fibres in the form of bobbins or cheeses, of tops, carded slivers, yarns or the like, the material to be treated is usually located on a set of bobbin carriers, each constructed in the form of a hollow cylindrical body having a perforated wall, said bobbin carriers being made integral with a hollow supporting device, the inner cavity of which communicates with the inside of each bobbin carrier as well as with the pipe supplying the bath fluid, said bath being caused to pass through the material to be treated from the out-side towards the inside during one cycle, and from the inside towards the outside in the next cycle and so on. On the upper part of each of said cylindrical carriers is mounted a cap made integral, at its lower end, with an annular wide flange extending outwardly and designed to apply a pressure to the material mounted therebelow, high enough to give to the material a correct and uniform degree of compactness.

In the known apparatus it has hitherto been the practice to provide caps mounted on upright threaded screws, each made integral with a cylindrical hollow bobbin carrier along which the cap can freely slide. Said cap is pressed against the material by means of a handle operated manually and screwed on said screw.

In the case wherein the cap has to be disassembled, first the handle must be removed so that the cap which is designed to apply a pressure to the bobbin can be raised and removed from the screw, thus enbaling the treated material to be removed and replaced by the material to be treated.

Such a locking system of the cap, besides causing a loss of time for carrying out the screwing and unscrewing of the handles on the bobbin carriers in order to allow the material to be treated to be loaded and the already treated material to be unloaded respectively, has the disadvantage that, when the material becomes flabby, the cap remains hanging on the corresponding screw in an inoperative arrangement with regard to the material: thus the bath fluid tends to pass throughout the zone comprised between the base of the cap and the top of the set of bobbins mounted on the corresponding carrier, since therein the bath does not encounter any substantial resistance. As a result, the circulation of the bath through the material on account of the fact that the cap is now inoperaice tive, becomes reduced, and therefore the effect of the treatment on the set of bobbins mounted on a carrier can no longer be uniform.

The device, which is the object of the present invention, overcomes said disadvantages enabling the pressure caps to be readily mounted on and removed from the bobbin carriers, moreover, the said cap can be freely and automatically lowered when the material becomes flabby until it comes into contact again with said material: afterwards it automatically locks to its supporting means and opposes itself against upwardly pushing movements which in some cases can be transmitted to the cap during the treatment and that takes place independently of the position at which the cap has been fixed to the carrier and more particularly to the rod made integral with said carrier and designed to support said cap.

According to the present invention the cap is mounted on an upright rod made integral with the upper part of a cylindrical hollow body carrying the material to be treated, said cap being conically tapered at its upper end. The cap is associated with a round cover device provided With an axial hole, by means of which the said cover device is mounted around said rod above the cap.

A tooth projects downwardly near the periphery of the lower end of the cap and is so positioned as to come into contact by means of its lower end with the conically tapered edge of the cap so that the pressure stresses transmitted to the cap and acting on said protruding part of the cover device cause a swinging movement to be imparted to the cover device which tends to rotate with respect to said bearing point: thus the axis of the hole provided in the cover device tends to tilt with regard to the axis of the supporting rod. As a result the cover member is caused to jam by friction to the rod which is stationary thus the cap placed underneath can move upwardly no further from the previous position. In fact, the reaction of the material, which is pressed by the cap, tends to push the cap upwardly, so that this latter transmits to the cover member an eccentric stress suited to lock said cover device to the supporting rod. Similar effects are obtained in the case wherein the movements of the bath fluid act on the material according to a similar manner.

At the moment when the material becomes flabby and the cap no longer rests upon the material, said cap, which is freely mounted on the rod, can move downwardly no obstacles now opposing such a movement.

Therefore, since the conically tapered upper end of the cap no longer acts against the aforesaid tooth provided in the lower part of the cover device, on account of the fact that said cap has been lowered by the force of gravity, the loosening of the locking of said cover member with respect to the rod takes place owing to the force of gravity, since said cover recovers its upright position and its alignment with the axis of the rod, thus enabling the cover member to follow the cap by sliding along the supporting rod until the cap stops against the material and the cover member falling upon the cap downwardly abuts by means of the tooth against the conically tapered upper end of the cap and rotates so that the axis of its hole tilts and therefore the cover device locks against the rod on which it is mounted.

According to a modified embodiment, the invention provides that the cover member is connected to the cap in such a manner that said two elements cannot be moved one away from the other beyond a pro-established extent, said elements being nevertheless free to rotate one with respect to the other.

The accompanying drawing shows two embodiments of the present invention, given merely by way of example and not as limiting the invention, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a side elevation of a bobbin carrier comprising a cap and a cover device designed to lock the cap to and unlock it from its supporting rod,

FIG. 2 shows a greatly enlarged axial sectional view of the cap and the cover device,

FIG. 3 shows an axial sectional view of another embodiment comprising a cover member adapted for limited movement on the cap, and

FIG. 4 shows an axial sectional view of the cover device represented on FIG. 3 and mounted on a cap of a modified shape.

With reference to the drawing, the material to be treated is marked 1, said material being in the form of bobbins or windings consisting of tops, carded slivers, yarns or the like prepared in form of cheeses, balls or similar form. Said material 1 is mounted around a cylindrical hollow carrier 2 having a perforated wall, said carrier 2 being one of a set of similar carriers mounted on a hollow supporting device, generally marked 3.

The inner cavities inside the cylindrical carriers 2 communicate with the inner main cavity of the device 3 supporting the bobbin carriers 2, said main cavity being connected with the pipe system circulating the bath liquid which is forced into the said cavity in the inside of the supporting device 3 and then in the cavities inside the hollow carriers 2 so that it can pass through the material 1 mounted on said carriers 2 from the inside towards the outside, while during the next cycle the direction of the flow of the bath is reversed and the bath liquid is drawn from the outside towards the inside of the carriers so that the bath is caused to pass from the outside towards the inside through the material 1, and then through the perforated wall of each carrier 2 collecting into the cavity in the inside of the supporting device 3.

Said bath is then forced to return in the system pipe, through which the bath is drawn from the cavity inside the perforated supporting device and forced by suitable means to return on the outside of the material 1 placed in the autoclave, on the bobbin carriers 2 supported by the device 3.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a tubular cap is marked 4, said cap being mounted around a cylindrical hollow carrier 2 and being provided with a lower wide flange 4a projecting outwardly, by means of which the cap applies a pressure on the set of bobbins or cheeses I mounted around the carrier 2 one upon the other. Each carrier 2 with the perforated wall is made integral at its upper end with an upright stationary rod 5, around which is slidably mounted the cap 4. At the top the cap has a closed end part 4]) provided with a concentric cylindrical hole 14, said end part 4b being conically tapered on the outside, the apex of said conical surface being placed above it.

A round cover device is marked 8; in said device is arranged an axial hole 9 by means of which the cover device 8 is mounted around the rod 5. Said cover device 8 is provided with a tooth 7 projecting downwardly and so positioned as to come into contact with the tapered part 6 of the upper closed end part 4b of the cap 4.

The device operates as follows: The material 1 to be treated is placed on a carrier 2, then the cap 4 and the cover device 8 are successively mounted, the cap being lowered so that it can press on the material with a predetermined pressure. The cover device 8, which is freely inserted on the rod 5, follows the cap 4 by gravity so that the tooth 7 will be in abutting relation with the conically tapered periphery 4b of the upper closed end of the cap 4. The compressed material 1 exerts a reaction thrust upwardly against the cap, and this latter transmits the thrust to the tooth 7. Said tooth, owing to its eccentric position, forces the cover member to tilt as much as the gap between the rod and hole 9 permits, with a locking action. At the moment when the surface of the ll hole 9 of cover device 8 is blocked by friction against the surface of the rod 5, the cover 8 can move no further, and, as a consequence, the cap 4 can lift no further. If, during the treatment, the material 1 becomes flabby, the axes of cap 4 and the cover device 8, owing to the force of gravity, recover their alignment and thus move down, following the material 1. The cover device 8 will be locked again when it has reached its new position where an upward reaction thrust is exerted. If the treated material 1 has to be removed from a carrier 2 it will be sufiicient to impart a small stress downwardly on the flange 4a of the cap in order to discharge the stress which it transmits, by means of its peripheral conical part 411 to the tooth 7 fixedly connected to the cover member 8. Then the cover member 8 and the cap can be readily removed; afterwards the material 1, made free from the cap 4, can be in turn removed.

In a modified embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 provision has been made so that the cover 8a is connected with the cap 4. For such a purpose a bush 10 is fixed underneath the cover member 8a, the lower edge 10a of which is so arranged as to project outwardly, while its inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the rod 5. The upper end 40 of the cap is shaped at its outer surface as in the embodiment above referred to, while the hole 14 through which passes the rod 5 at its upper part is made larger as compared with its other sections so as to constitute an annular chamber 12, and then it decreases to a smaller width so as to constitute a hole 13 which is in diameter large enough to allow the projecting edge 10a of the bush 10 to pass down throughout said hole 13 with a sufiicient clearance into the annular chamber 12, Where said edge is locked owing to a compression ring 11, which may be constituted by two half rings. In order to make the assembling of the parts concerned easier, said two half rings are welded to the upper end 40 of the cap 4 at one end of their ends facing each other. It is obvious that any other suitable system for assembling the ring 11 to the part 4c can be used.

What I claim is:

1. A device for automatically locking and unlocking the pressure cap mounted on a bobbin carrier of an apparatus for dye or like treatment of textile fibres in the form of bobbins, cheeses or the like comprising a cylindrical body having a perforated side wall, the top of said body being made integral with an upright rod, on which a cap is slidably mounted, provided at its lower end with a wide flange, said cap at its upper end being conically tapered, upon said cap a cover device being placed having a concentric hole of an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the rod, a tooth protruding from the lower end of said cover device and so positioned that it may come into contact with said conically tapered edge, at an eccentric point.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the cover device is restrained relatively to the cap by means of an interposed bush projecting downwardly from the lower end of the cover device and having an edge extending outwardly, said bush being placed around said rod and being so proportioned that a suitable gap is formed between said bush and said rod, while the lower projecting edge of the bush is designed to be located within an annular recess provided in the wall of the hole arranged in the cap, where said edge is locked by means of a compression ring connected with the cap.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,903,585 Annicq Apr. 11, 1933 2,721,468 Pole Oct. 25, 1955 2,835,124 Jackson May 20, 1958 

1. A DEVICE FOR AUTOMATICALLY LOCKING AND UNLOCKING THE PRESSURE CAP MOUNTED ON A BOBBIN CARRIER OF AN APPARATUS FOR DYE OR LIKE TREATMENT OF TEXTILE FIBRES IN THE FORM OF BOBBINS, CHEESES OR THE LIKE COMPRISING A CYLINDRICAL BODY HAVING A PERFORATED SIDE WALL, THE TOP OF SAID BODY BEING MADE INTEGRAL WITH AN UPRIGHT ROD, ON WHICH A CAP IS SLIDABLY MOUNTED, PROVIDED AT ITS LOWER END WITH A WIDE FLANGE, SAID CAP AT ITS UPPER END BEING CONICALLY TAPERED, UPON SAID CAP A COVER DEVICE BEING PLACED HAVING A CONCENTRIC HOLE OF AN INNER DIAMETER LARGER THAN THE OUTER DIAMETER OF THE ROD, A TOOTH PROTRUDING FROM THE LOWER END OF SAID COVER DEVICE AND SO POSITIONED THAT IT MAY COME INTO CONTACT WITH SAID CONICALLY TAPERED EDGE, AT AN ECCENTRIC POINT. 